無垢と経験の歌 Songs of Innocence and Experience

無垢の歌 Songs of Innocence

ちび黒少年。THE LITTLE BLACK BOY.

4行詩節×7

脚韻ABAB

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わが母産めり、僕を南の荒野に。

僕は黒人、とはいえ！この魂は白い。

英国の子は白い、天使のように

だが僕は、光を失くしたように黒い。

MY mother bore me in the southern wild,

And I am black, but oh! my soul is white;

White as an angel is the English child,

But I am black, as if bereaved of light.

母の教え給いし木の下で、

座っていたのは日の盛り、

お膝に載せて、口づけて、

指さす東方、口を開き……

My mother taught me underneath a tree,

And sitting down before the heat of day,

She took me on her lap, and kissed me,

And, pointing to the east, began to say:—

「ご覧よ朝日を、神の坐(ましま)す、

　光を賜(たま)う、熱を放つ。

　草花、樹木、獣、人も授かる

　朝は快く、昼は愉(たの)しく。」

"Look on the rising sun,—there God does live,

And gives his light, and gives his heat away;

And flowers, and trees, and beast, and men receive

Comfort in morning, joy in the noon-day.

「私たちは大地のちょっとした場所に出された、

　愛の光線担うを覚えるようにと。

　この黒い身体と日に焼けた顔は

　雲なす、鬱蒼たる木立よ。」

"And we are put on earth a little space,

That we may learn to bear the beams of love;

And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face

Are but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

「我等が土壌の担う熱、覚えたれば、

　黒雲は消え、かの御声を我等耳にしよう、

　曰く『木立より出(いで)よ、わが愛と慈しみよ、いざ、

　わが黄金の天幕を廻れ、愉しき仔羊の如く。』」

"For when our soils have learnt the heat to bear,

The clouds will vanish, we shall hear his voice,

Saying, 'Come out from the grove, my love and care,

And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.'"

斯(か)くわが母宣(のたも)うて、口づけて。

斯くわが語りき、小さな英国の少年へ。

「わが黒きより、彼が白きより雲を離れ、

　仔羊の如く愉しく、神が天幕を廻(めぐ)る、

Thus did my mother say, and kissed me;

And thus I say to little English boy,—

"When I from black, and he from white cloud free,

And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,

「彼が影とならん、陽射しに耐え得るまで

　我等が父の膝に、愉しく寄り添わんが為。

それから立ち上がり、彼が銀髪を撫で。

僕は彼のようになり、彼すなわち僕を愛せ。」

"I'll shade him from the heat, till he can bear

To lean in joy upon our Father's knee;

And then I'll stand, and stroke his silver hair,

And be like him, and he will then love me."